Another Maloy story

The late Emil Parker wrote this in the Summer 1998 Track of the Cat. Last week I e-mailed sports information director Marc Gignac and asked if he could find it and he did with the help of college archivist Jan Blodgett. Here it is:

“Where in the world is Mike Maloy?”

“Whatever happened to Mike Maloy?”

“Does anybody ever hear from Mike Maloy?”

The questions never stopped coming, even after Mike Maloy ’70 played his last college basketball game for Davidson in 1970 and his last professional game for the Virginia Squires three years later. At last, there are some answers for the frequent questions.

Maloy’s contact with former friends and family in the U.S. has been minimal for the last 15 years -- a long time on anybody’s calendar. He’s been playing and coaching basketball in Austria. Maloy has also taught at the American School in Vienna and currently coaches club basketball teams.

Don’t overlook the Boring Blues Band, although the name is changing to BBB! Mike sings with the BBB when he’s not coaching basketball. Besides being a great basketball player, Mike was a party animal, too.

We caught up with Mike through one of his former teammates, Ralph Wimmer, who inquired by e-mail about Maloy. He was curious about how good his former teammate was.

The answer, Ralph, was “damn good.” In fact, he was better than that.

Maloy was on several first team All-American selections and led Davidson to three 20-win seasons, three top 20 finishes. With Maloy at center form 1968 to 1970, twice the Wildcats were whisker close to reaching the NCAA Final Four.

Now, Mike is on the telephone from Vienna. Maloy’s charm, one of his many talents, comes through despite the miles. He’s anxious to hear about Davidson team and coaches. Last March, he watched the Wildcats’ NCAA game against Michigan on television.

Now 50 and an Austrian citizen, he played professional basketball until four years ago, but the sport remains an integral part of his life. “I’m coaching a club team with players aged 14-17. It’s really neat,” Maloy said. “We’re at the second level, but I hope to move it up to the top level. That will take a lot of hard work to get the necessary sponsorship.”

At 6’7”, Maloy didn’t appear on paper to be a threat to taller centers in college basketball. But, with perhaps the quickest first step in college basketball, he would catch the ball down low as one of Davidson’s two post players. His long arms and huge hands made the catching part easy.

Few opponents could stop what happened next. With exceptional quickness, Maloy whirled around taller defenders to render them ineffective. When defenders backed off, he pulled up for medium range jumpers. He possessed one of the highest vertical leaps in college basketball, making him a devastating rebounder, as well as a great shot blocker and defender.

From Bryant High School in New York City, Maloy was among the first blacks (the term “African American” hadn’t been invented yet) to play for a predominantly white team in the south -- the star on a deeply talented Davidson team. With an engaging smile and charming personality on top of exceptional basketball talent, he was a media and fan favorite -- before Michael Jordan, Mike had a jump shot.

Combining talent with finesse, he became one of college basketball’s best inside player. In 1969, he was one of the ten best players in the game, good enough to earn a spot on several major first team All-America teams and a second team consensus All-American.

With Maloy setting the tone, flanked by Doug Cook ’70 and Jerry Kroll ’70, Davidson was 27-3 in 1969 and finished third in the final United Press poll. Except for a last second shot by North Carolina’s Charlie Scott, who had originally committed to Davidson, the Wildcats would have been in the Final Four. In December of ’68, he and Scott, along with Kentucky’s Mike Casey, were on the cover of Sports Illustrated, hailed as threats to UCLA.

After leading Davidson to three Southern Conference championships and NCAA bids, Maloy was a first round pick of the Pittsburgh Pipers, an American Basketball Association team in the middle of a bidding war with the NBA. The American part of his professional career ended after three seasons.

Maloy got to Vienna in what was for him typical fashion -- whim and opportunity. He was on a club team in Dallas in 1975, when a friend asked if Maloy would be interested in playing for a “pretty good team” in Austria. “It was Monday and I had to be there on Thursday,” Maloy said.

“My wife and I were separating. There were a bunch of things on my mind. Austria sounded interesting, so I went. I was there for one year. Then another. And then another. Europe, especially Austria, suits my mentality.”

The pace in Vienna, Mike says, is like New York or Paris minus the “hustle and bustle.” He hasn’t driven a car since he got to Europe. “The transportation system here will get you anywhere.”

Basketball was different, too. After playing center for three years in college, he was a power forward or small forward in Europe and had a long, satisfying career with USBC-Vienna, the best team in Austria. He also played for teams in Mattersburg, Klostennurburg, Gra ABC, Munich-Graz, and two other teams in Vienna. He played for another in Paris, but can’t remember the name of the team.

“I played until about four years ago,” Maloy said. “I knew it was time to quit when I started playing against the sons of some players I had faced when I first came to Europe.”

Maloy has not remarried but has lived “for quite a long time” with an Austrian woman. Their 10-year-old son Ryan, is beginning to develop sports interests, including basketball, karate, swimming, and music.

Maloy left Davidson before graduating. Only a term short of his degree, he might be interested in finishing the requirements for his diploma. He could be eligible for an NCAA program that encourages and offers financial support to former athletes who didn’t graduate but desire to finish.

“The days at Davidson were some of the best of my life,” he said. “It’s amazing when you think about how good we were. We only lost three games my junior year. One of those losses was to St. John’s in overtime and another was to North Carolina on a last second shot.”

Although basketball has been -- and still is -- a major part of his life in Vienna, Maloy has other strong interests. In addition to English, Maloy is fluent in German and speaks “adequate” French. He has taught English, German and history at the American School in Vienna.

The club basketball teams and the BBB -- a.k.a. the Boring Blues Band -- are his primary focus now. His club team is at the second level in Austria and has developed a plan to attract the sponsors that would make the jump possible.

Maloy is the group’s lead singer, which plays clubs around Vienna. The group has an agent and has recorded a CD. “We do a lot of rhythm and blues and a little rock and roll -- some Sinatra and 30’s to 60’s kind of music,” Maloy said. “It started about seven years ago. I had a friend who played piano and another who played guitar. Another had a small band. One day we decided to form our own band. Somebody asked us to play and we did one show. Then somebody else asked us to play. Now we’ve done quite a number of shows.”

Most of the questions have been answered, but we’ve got one more. What’s next, Mike?